Planning, implementation and evaluation of programmes to promote appropriate infant feeding practices require detailed, current information about these practices in the target populations. To estimate the prevalences and identify the correlates of overall breast-feeding and of exclusive breast-feeding in different age periods during infancy, a cohort of 152 apparently healthy neonates and their mothers were followed during October 1987 through April 1989 in rural Bilbeis, Sharqiya Governorate, Egypt. Feeding data were collected through twice weekly home visits thus reducing the potential for bias in our findings due to respondent recall errors. The prevalence of overall breastfeeding in the infants declined from 100% in age period 0-11 weeks to 89% in age period 36-47 weeks. Mothers with previous living children were associated with significantly higher (odds ratio [OR]: 6.53, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.33-32.09) and ownership of refrigerators was associated with significantly lower (OR: 0.18, 95% CI: 0.05-0.67) overall breast-feeding prevalences in age periods 24-35 and 36-47 weeks, respectively. The prevalence of exclusive breast-feeding in breast-fed infants dropped from 20% in age period 0-11 weeks to 0% in age period 36-47 weeks. After multivariate adjustment, prelacteal feeding was significantly negatively (OR: 0.12, 95% CI: 0.04-0.37) associated with exclusive breast-feeding in age period 0-11 weeks. Nearly 90% of Bilbeis infants were breast-fed at age 47 weeks, but the initiation of supplementation at 0-11 weeks in 80% of breast-fed infants is contrary to current recommendations.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
PIP: To estimate the prevalence of breast feeding in rural Egypt, a prospective cohort study involving 152 healthy neonates from four villages in Bilbeis was conducted. Infant feeding data were collected at twice weekly home visits from October 1987-April 1989; new infant-mother pairs were added to the study each month during the first year of research. The study infants represented 57% of the total births in the four villages during the recruitment period. All infants were exclusively or partially breast-fed during the first 11 months of life; this prevalence dropped to 98% in weeks 12-23 and to 89% in weeks 36-47. However, only 20% of infants were exclusively breast-fed in the first 11 weeks of life. Multivariate analyses indicated that involvement of a wet nurse, avoidance of prelacteal feeds, previous living children, non-ownership of a refrigerator, delivery by traditional birth attendants, and an uncomplicated labor and delivery were associated with higher prevalences of partial or exclusive breast feeding. There was no association of maternal ability to read and write, prenatal care use, and television ownership to breast feeding patterns. Mothers of higher socioeconomic status tended to terminate breast feeding significantly earlier than their less well-off counterparts. These findings point to a need for programs that discourage the supplementation of breast milk in the first four months of life.